


Sappy Old Men

by Mischiefs_Hawk



Category: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Movies)
Genre: Animal Death, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Harm to Animals, Hurt Newt Scamander, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Newt Scamander would make a good Rogue, Older Man/Younger Man, Scenes of animal abuse, Sneaky Newt Scamander, Threesome - M/M/M, seriously, trigger warning for animal abuse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-28
Updated: 2019-02-28
Packaged: 2019-11-07 05:20:07
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,493
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17954333
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mischiefs_Hawk/pseuds/Mischiefs_Hawk
Summary: Newt finds out about an illegal collection of magical creatures. Obviously, he needs to make sure they are okay.To no one's surprise- they aren't.





	Sappy Old Men

When Newt Scamander first heard rumors about a Higher-up Ministry Official who kept a personal zoo filled with poorly kept magical creatures, he’d gotten quite angry.

While he’d spent endless hours petitioning and attempting to work with the Ministry to change their more barbaric Magic Creature Laws (thankfully, not as bad as the ones in the U.S.), some official was abusing their power to abuse creatures?

The magizoologist was a little ashamed to admit that for a very short moment, he considered asking one of his partners to kill the Ministry Official, whose name he’d learned was Arcturus Thicknesse. Gellert would have done it too, without question. Hell, the German probably would have set the entire Ministry on fire if he thought it would make Newt happy.

In his weaker moments, Newt did like to think about getting rid of the utterly incompetent system, but Theseus did work there so clearly not every Ministry official was bad.

Still, that being said, Newt simply couldn’t leave whatever creatures Thicknesse had collected. The term "collected" was so utterly disgusting, by the way but that’s what people like Thicknesse did. They enjoyed the prestige of owning creatures but didn’t care for the creatures themselves.

Before heading off to deal with Thicknesse, Newt pinned a very quick note to Albus and Gellert.

_‘Loves,_

_Off to help some creatures. Be back later._

_-Newt.’_

His partners had been busy the last few days on their search for the Hallows, and both of them were still asleep upstairs. Clipping the note to the kettle where he knew Albus would see it when he made tea, Newt did a final check on his case. He didn’t know what kinds of creatures he’d need to save but he’d made sure to add in a few habitats to fit a wide spectrum of creatures.

Moving to gently lead Pickett over to the Bowtruckle’s tree, he frowned when the small green creature gave a raspberry in response.

“I know, Pick, but I don’t know what we’re walking into. It might be dangerous.” Or they could see something awful that might do more harm to the creature that already had attachment issues.

Pickett chirped at him again, clearly unwilling to abandon his tree. The magizoologist sighed before leading the creature back onto his shoulder.

“Alright but if I tell you to get in the case you will listen, yes?”

-

It was so much worse than Newt anticipated. Sneaking into Thicknesse’ home had been easy enough- sneaking out of the house when he was recovering from being ill had been much more difficult.

Gellert had threatened to tie him down to their bed if he tried leaving before the Healers announced he was healthy again. Albus had promised to help him.

Those two really were over protective sometimes. It was probably why Theseus got along with them so well. (After Theseus had tried to arrest Gellert and Albus which hadn’t been all that fun.)

Hidden in the basement of the Thicknesse manor, which was eerily quiet in the middle of the day, was a seemingly endless hallway of horrors.

He found Lethifolds kept in containment bubbles, slamming against the magic wards when they saw him coming. When they couldn’t break through to him, they floated to the ground. Even such dangerous creatures like Lethifolds didn’t deserve this.

In the cage next to it, he found Billywigs, dead and tied together with string like some kind of warped version of faerie lights.

One of them, out of at least 30 he’d seen began to buzz weakly at Newt’s approach. Putting his case down, he ripped through the wards of the cell and gently cut the billywig free.

“Oh you poor thing.” The Magizoologist murmured, tapping it very softly to begin to heal some of the damage to it.

“Let’s get you settled,” Opening the case, he saw Dougal was waiting at the top of the ladder, ready to help.

“Thank you, Dougal.” The Demiguise seemed to smile at Newt before taking the Billywig from him. Closing the case, Newt was loath to leave it behind. No doubt he’d have to open it again.

Many of the things Newt found in the Zoo were close to death. Beaten down, many of their feathers or fur or skin cut up or hurt in some way.

He had been able to save a few creatures, a clutch of Occamy eggs though their mum was too far gone. Sending her to sleep caused tears to begin to drop.

There had been a dark and somewhat damp room filled with webs. There had been a few broken eggs- not hatched but purposely destroyed. It was undoubtedly an Acromantula, one that had gone beyond feral. It had definitely cracked its siblings eggs on purpose to save them from its fate.

Kneeling down at the entrance to that cell, he only had to wait a few moments before a ginormous spider crawled out to him. It’s many legs were bent at odd ways, as if he hadn’t had the space to grow correctly.

The Acromantula hissed quietly, the sound gurgled as if there was water in its beak.

“Come here, little one.” Newt said, slipping his wand back into its holster.

It hissed again, and it took a moment for Newt to realize it sounded determined. As if it were trying to guide Newt to something.

Following its line of sight, directly back to the broken eggs, Newt found one remained. It had been hidden under the shells of the others.

“I’ll take care of it,” the redhead promised, petting the top of the Acromantula’s head. It butted against Newt’s hand before scurrying to a corner. Newt knew creatures well enough to know it was going off to die.

Swallowing back his cries, for now, Newt put a charm in his coat pockets that would keep the egg warm and safe.

The last still living thing that Newt had hope he could save was a mature wampus. It snarled at Newt, pressing itself further into the corner of its cell.

Getting the Wampus to trust him took longer than Newt anticipated, and he’d been so focused on the injured creature he didn’t hear anyone approaching him.

“You’re the Magizoologist, aren’t you? The one who wrote Fantastic Beasts?”

Well, bugger.

The wizard behind him was no doubt Thicknesse- the collector.

Thanking Gellert and Albus for teaching him wandless and nonverbal magic, he wordlessly cast a “Petrificus totalus.” The muffled thump as the Collector hit the ground spooked the Wampus further.

It curled around to look behind Newt. Just as Newt knew, the creature was smart enough to put together that Newt was no friend of its abuser.

Slowly, it slunk up to him. Putting her head against Newt’s chest, earning the first smile Newt had since coming down here.

How wonderfully strong his creatures were.

After guiding the Wampus into his case, followed by the capture Lethifolds (he had to keep them in the containment bubbles until he could release them to their natural habitat), Newt went to leave the horror basement.

Leaving Thicknesse petrified, Newt Scamander left the house to return to his, Albus, and Gellert’s home.

Ignoring the despair in his heart, Newt forced himself to do his evening rounds in his case and start work on rehabilitating the creature’s he’d been able to save.

The Wampus was curled up near the Nundu’s habitat, seeming to enjoy the warmth of the area, and the Billywig was easily accepted into the swarm Newt already had.

The hardest thing were the Lethifolds, he expanded their containment bubbles so at least they could interact with one another.

Much later, Albus found Newt staring at a cold cup of tea.

“Newt?”

The tears on Newt’s face had long ago dried or dropped into the full teacup.

The Magizoologist wasn’t able to get the words out- about the many creatures he had to put down because there was no hope to save them. The horrible ways Thicknesse had hurt innocent creatures.

“Come here, love.” The older Brit said, pulling Newt into a hug. Gellert found the two of them not long after, knowing everything he needed to know from just a look at Albus.

The german pressed a kiss to Newt’s forehead.

“I’m sorry, Newt.”

Feeling just a bit comforted in the embrace of both of his lovers, Newt closed his eyes. He let the tears fall, he let himself cry- knowing Albus and Gellert would never think less of him for it.

“Thank you,” he murmured afterwards, feeling totally exhausted from the emotional whirlwind and physically trying day.

“Of course, Newt.” Albus replied, kissing his forehead, Gellert doing the same.

“We’re here for you, Mein kleiner Liebling.”

The magizoologist giggled a bit at that, Gellert’s german nicknames for him always made Newt blush. Partially because he didn’t know what Gellert was saying.

“You sappy old men.” Newt said, smiling at the two. His sappy old men.

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on Tumblr 
> 
> Come find me on Tumblr at mischiefs-hawk.tumblr.com
> 
> Like my stuff? Consider buying me a coffee at http://ko-fi.com/D1D06I0X


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